


Schrodinger

by autisticaizawashouta



Series: Gender is Hard 'verse [8]
Category: Sanders Sides, Thomas Sanders
Genre: Ableism, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Author loves to chat in the Comments, Bullying, Family, Gen, Homophobia, Hurt/Comfort, Non-binary character, Read it and scream, The Author Regrets Nothing, Uncertainty, or will i keep you hanging for a while longer?, this is not the resolution to Influenza you were hoping for, will we return to Patton and Virgil's POVs next installment?, yeet that binary outta here we don't need it no more
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-13
Updated: 2018-03-13
Packaged: 2019-03-30 18:25:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13957386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/autisticaizawashouta/pseuds/autisticaizawashouta
Summary: Patton and Virgil haven't been online in several days. Logan and Roman are worried.





	Schrodinger

**Author's Note:**

> this is the gender is hard 'verse, therefore, pronouns are as follows: Logan, xe/xir, Roman, they/them, Patton, he/him, Virgil, they/them.

“I’m honored you’re thinking of me, but acting onstage isn’t one of my interests,” Logan replied. Roman followed xir, their wine-red lipstick only accentuating the pout of their lips.

“But Logan,” the said. “You’d be great! Brilliant! Everyone would love you!”

“Falsehood,” Logan replied, pausing to look back at Roman. “Everyone would not, in fact, love me. I believe I have lived long enough to know that I’m very rarely someone that another person can get along with.”

“I get along with you!” Roman protested. “And drama kids are all weird! I can say this because I am a drama kid. You’d fit right in!”

Logan stopped and turned to look Roman in the eye. “Roman, I most definitely would not fit in,” xe said. “Drama kids are loud, and outgoing, and, well, overdramatic. Does that sound like me?”

“Yes,” Roman replied, almost cutting Logan off with their answer. “Drama Mom has already adopted you, therefore, it is law. You could at least do tech! You’d get to yell at us and we’d have to let you!”

“I might do tech,” Logan conceded. “But I won’t act. It’s not something I’m inclined to try.”

“I still think you’d do amazingly,” Roman replied. They shrugged. “But I’ll try not to keep bugging you about it.”

A weight that had been pressing on Logan’s shoulder’s seemed to lift. Xe was so grateful to Roman, xe really was, but the other enby could just be so pushy, especially when it came to acting.

Something Roman had said finally hit Logan. “Why has Christine already ‘adopted’ me?”

“Because the rest of us have adopted you,” Roman replied. They shrugged. “Why does she do anything? No one knows. She is a true chaotic neutral goddess.”

Something in Roman’s tone made Logan curious. Xe squinted down at Roman.

“Are you… jealous? Or do you have a crush on her?” xe asked, and Roman blushed bright red (a color that rivaled their long red scarf).

“I don’t have a crush on her! I’m gay!” Roman replied.

Logan could hear one of the one of the passing FBLA kids scoff. There was a small but vocal subset of the FBLA kids who didn’t like anyone outside of what they considered the normal. That had to be one of them.

Roman inhaled, sharp and fast. “Oh, go screw yourself, Michael,” they snapped. Logan refused to turn and look. Xe wouldn’t give Michael and his entourage- probably Kara and Tyson- xir attention.

“Shut your queer mouth,” and yeah, that was Tyson.

“Oh, you actually noticed I’m queer. You’re not as much of a dumbass as you look like,” Roman replied. Their lips, still stained with color, had pulled back into a sneer. Amber eyes glared at the business kids, accentuated by winged eyeliner sharp enough to kill a man.

Xe had to admit, even though xe wasn’t attracted to them, Roman was drop-dead gorgeous.

“Call me that one more time,” Tyson snarled. Logan heard him take two stomping steps forward. Roman opened their mouth, probably to call Tyson a dumbass again, but Logan grabbed their wrist and turned xir head to glare down at Tyson. One perk of being over six feet tall: you could glare down at a lot of people.

Tyson backed off. There were a lot of rumours about Logan. Almost none of them were true, but, well, xe had a reputation. The words ‘sociopath’ and ‘psychopath’ tended to get tossed around a lot in relation to xir. Seriously, what was it with people freaking out about other people with non-standard emotional reactions to things?

The three jerks finally turned and left when Christine herself, in all her platform-booted, green-haired glory stomped down the hall.

“Roman!” she growled. “You’re gonna be late for auditions if you keep loitering outside the business classroom.”

“Oh, that’s why Michael showed up,” Roman said, glancing at the classroom door. True to form, it was the business classroom- painted with stylized spreadsheets and computers. They turned and grinned at Logan. “Well, iNerd, see you later!”

“Do you need a ride after auditions?” Logan asked, and Roman shook their head.

“Christine’ll give me a ride, won’t she?” they asked, and she shook her head and rolled her eyes.

“You’re lucky I love you, punk,” she replied. Logan watched the two actors walk off down the hallway together, teasing each other and laughing.

Maybe xe should join the tech crew for the next play. It might even be enjoyable. Maybe the others would actually like xir.

Xe shook xir head. Xe couldn’t control the others- maybe they would like xir, maybe they wouldn’t. It was out of xir hands.

Xe left the school, thankfully not meeting Michael or his friends again. It was partly cloudy and windy- spring was well and truly on its way.

Logan honestly thought that any characterization or anthropomorphization of spring as gentle and sweet was more wrong than someone claiming the Earth was flat. Spring was neither gentle nor sweet. Spring was rage and storms and a mother scorned.

Xe scrabbled for xir phone and pulled it out of xir pocket, unlocking it and opening the notes app. Xe wrote down the lines xe had just thought up and then put it back. Oh, if xe had forgotten those thoughts…

Neither of xir parents were home when xe got there, both of them still at their respective schools. Xe took xir shoes off and walked to xir room, with a slight detour to pour a glass of orange juice and take it with xir.

Later that afternoon, after Evan had gotten home and Logan was mostly done with xir homework, xir phone started ringing. Roman was calling.

Logan picked up the call and put it on speakerphone.

“I AM RUINED,” Roman sobbed over the line. “My career is  _ over _ , my crops have all died, and my skin shall never be clear again!”

“Roman, you overdramatic crawfish,” Logan groaned, massaging xir temples. “I am sure it wasn’t as bad as you think.”

Roman gasped. “Did you just call me a crawfish? How dare you! Orange is not my color!”

“You’re being a maladaptive traffic cone,” Logan replied, xir voice flat. Roman gasped again. “An insufferable pumpkin.”

“Yeah, well, if there’s one thing you excel at, Microsoft nerd, it’s insulting me,” Roman pouted. Logan groaned.

“Ah. I see you’re learning from Patton. Joy,” xe said.

“What? Microsoft nerd? I came up with that on my own,” Roman replied, their voice tinged with confusion.

“No, I mean the Excel pun, with the Microsoft? No? Did you not plan that?” Logan asked.

Roman barked out a laugh. “You’re the one Patton’s rubbing off on!... Speaking of, have you heard from him or Virgil in the past couple days? They’ve been pretty quiet…”

“If by pretty quiet you mean they seem to have absolutely vanished, yes,” Logan replied. Xir heart fluttered with worry. Patton and Virgil occasionally took breaks from tumblr and social media, but never without posting that they would be taking a break. There had been no posts from either of them about a break.

“Do you think they’re okay?” Roman asked. Their voice was too small.

“Well…” Logan paused for a moment to gather xir words. “It’s always possible that something could’ve happened to them. I don’t know if I’m the best person to talk to about this. Christine and Elliott and Katy know you have close online friends, right? They would most likely be very understanding if you went to them with your worries.”

“You’re worried too,” Roman stated.

“I am,” Logan agreed. “There’s always the chance that a terrible accident happened. Or that they were the victims of a hate crime. And at the moment, all we can do is wait to find out whether they come back online or not.”

Roman sighed. “I hate this,” they said. “That someone could’ve attacked our friends. That they could be hurt, or sick, or dead, and we have no idea what’s happening.”

“I do too,” Logan murmured. They dropped their head and took a deep breath.

“Schrodinger’s friends,” Roman said. Against xir better judgment, xe laughed.

“Yeah,” xe said. “That’s one way to put it.”

“Well, I will take your advice,” Roman said. “I think I’ll talk to Katy- she has a lot of close online friends, I think she might know how to deal with them… vanishing. Randomly.”

“Good luck,” Logan replied.

“Thanks,” Roman said, and hung up.

Logan returned to xir homework- anything to keep xir mind off the subject Roman had drawn it onto.

Eventually, Logan was done with xir homework and decided to take a book out into the living room. Xe didn’t want to be alone with xir worry.

Evan looked up from where he was working on a lesson plan. He raised his eyebrows.

“Well, hey there, hatchling! What brings you out from your nest?”

Logan groaned. “Dad.”

Evan grinned. “Child.” He grew serious. “Seriously, Lo. You’re usually in your room doing homework or chatting with your online buddies until dinner. Is everything okay?”

Logan opened xir mouth, and then closed it. “Uh. Well.”

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” Evan said. “If that’s not what you need right now.”

“No, I,” Logan said, swallowing, “I think I do?” Xe looked away. “I’m not talking to my online friends right now…” Logan trailed off.

Evan sighed, a sigh of hurt on another person’s behalf. “Oh, Logan, did you have an argument? Did they say something?”

Logan shook xir head. “No, no, nothing like that, other than Roman and Virgil’s ridiculous teasing. No… We haven’t heard from Virgil or Patton in a few days, no one in our… online circle has, and sometimes they take breaks from social media but never without at least posting a heads up on their blogs but this time there was nothing and… I’m worried about them.” Logan looked back over at xir dad. His expression softened.

“Oh, gosh, kid,” he said. “C’mere.”

Logan accepted the invitation without a second thought, letting xir dad wrap his arms around xir. Evan pulled xir close, hands warm and strong between xir shoulder blades. Xe tucked xir head into xir dad’s shoulder, and he held his kid close.

“It’s like when Garrett was deployed,” Logan whispered. Xir cousin had come back alive, if not entirely in one piece. “Except… If they’re dead we’ll have no way of knowing, no one will be able to tell us.”

“We’re just gonna have to wait and see, kid,” Evan replied. “And hope.”

Logan nodded.

Evan and Logan were both reading in the living room when Maria came home. She walked inside, took her shoes off, and then stopped cold.

“Wow,” she said, raising one eyebrow. “Both of you, out in the living room, spending time together? What prompted this?”

“Family bonding,” Logan replied, dedpan, not even looking up from xir book.

“Well,” Maria said, setting her bag on the ground. “I might as well join in. Toni called me today.”

“Really? What’s she have to say?” Evan asked.

“Well, Jason’s trying to get in her life, too,” Maria replied, cringing in disgust.

“Eugh,” Evan said. “Has he changed at all?”

“Nope,” Maria replied. “Still as much of a bigoted asshole as he’s ever been. Anyways, she was mostly just calling to vent. There’s a meningitis outbreak at Remy’s university. Poor kid knows a few people who’ve been hospitalized. She’s worried, they’re worried, I’m worried now.”

“Oh, jeeze,” Evan said. “That’s not good.”

“No,” Maria agreed, shaking her head. “Toni says that Remy hasn’t had any symptoms, but she and Teagan have been talking to them a bit more than normal. So what’s up with the family bonding time?”

Logan sighed and looked up from xir book. “Aunt Toni and Aunt Teagan aren’t the only ones worried. A couple of my online friends have been online at all for the past couple of days, and they didn’t even leave a warning they were taking a break, which is unusual. So… I’m worried about them.”

“Aw, raincloud,” she said. “That’s gotta be hard.” Raincloud was an old nickname she had for xir- xe hadn’t heard it for a while.

Logan looked at the window. “All I can do is wait for them to come back online.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty much all you can do,” she replied. She thought for a moment, and then smirked. “Why don’t you call Roman and see if they want to come over for dinner? And maybe… a game of Blockus?”

“Oh dear god no,” Logan groaned, throwing an arm across xir forehead. “No.”

“Oh, yes,” Evan replied, grinning. “I’ll call them if you won’t.”

“No,” Logan groaned again, for good measure.

At least having Roman over kept both of them from thinking too hard about their absent friends. And if Logan went on another Blockus-inspired rant, well, those were always very entertaining for the people watching.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading and i hope you enjoyed it! if you did, leave me a kudos! and if you can, please leave a comment, even if it's just "asdg;klh;lkhlk sdfklhj" because i leave those comments on other people's fics, trust me, i get it. i will keyboard smash back at you. i just love talking to people lol  
> also i'm evil and decided to keep y'all hanging on Virgil's fate for a while  
> with love,  
> Kestrel


End file.
